WAR (violence) is NOT the answer

Today I received this email which I thought will be good to share with all.

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What you are reflects the way you were brought up, therefore Parents and the environment.

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K.Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story:

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbours, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, 'I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together.'

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00.

He anxiously asked me, 'Why were you late?'

I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, 'The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait,' not realizing that he had already called the garage.

When he caught me in the lie, he said: 'There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it.'

He dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads.

I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday.

That is the power of non-violence.

Not gay

I asked the Chestnut today if he was gay.

Chestnut looked at me in shock,"I'm not. Do I look gay to you? Why would you think I am gay?"

Okay, verdict - Chestnut is not gay.

Sometimes I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder...

Why am I here?
What am I doing here for?
What do I want from here?
Why don't I just give up now?

Ain't got a clue yet... I carry on wondering...

Blessings in disguise - Part 2

After waking up from a night of partying to a relaxing Sunday afternoon, I went straight to getting my mirror mounted onto the wall. It now fits nicely behind my shelf. I can see my reflection from the back of the see-through shelf. It's like my mini dressing table-shelf now. I like it!

Remembering I had a dinner invite from my ex-housemates, I got ready and off I went from the South back to the West for a nice rendez-vous at my previous address. It felt kinda surreal to be walking up the ever once so famaliar path. It's nice to be back in the big house with my friends.

We had lotsa food! I drank quite a fair amount of wine too. We even had joints. Tsk tsk...

It was getting late and I wanted to head home given the fact that that would take me an hour, I didn't want to miss my train but I ended up taking half hour just to say my goodbyes. By the time I got to the tube station it was near 11.30pm. Ah ah! This was when I realised... I've left my mobile back at the house! Drats! With haste I made my way back up the surreal path again. Man I must have missed this place! Within record time I was back at the tube station. I managed to get the next overground to Paddington station to change for another tube.

I guess I was too late as the last tube I'm supposed to change to had gone! I was forced to change my route. And by the time I got to my other destination to catch another tube, it had gone too! What luck! It was slightly past midnight and I started to panic as all possible tube route combinations back home had all gone and I didn't know what to do! I swore I nearly cried as I was lost and still stuck in the western bit of London. I was angry with myself for not being able to get myself home and stuffs. Haha, but after finally calming myself down, I tried to be positive and told myself to treat this as a little adventure. It can be rather fun in a way.

Good thing I had my mobile with me and even luckier I had internet on my phone so I can check how to get home online. Thank god I went back to get my phone! Blessing in disguise!

In the end I had to catch 3 different buses just to get home. Good thing Mushroom was online and we both chatted over the phone via skype and that made my journey much more enjoyably bearable though I was really tired. It was great hearing her voice again and chatting together! Another blessing in disguise! It wasn't until 1.30am that I finally got back home! 2 freaking hours! Lesson learnt now. The next time I ever visit my ex-housemates I'll make sure to say my goodbyes earlier. Haha...

Blessings in disguise - Part 1

A quick (to my standards) run through of what a weekend I had part 1 - Saturday's

Ikea's website is like my oxygen, I cannot live without going to it everyday! I had been planning my room's furnishing for the past 3 weeks or more without fail - rain or shine, day or night - ever since I moved. And to think that I had actually wanted to wait for another week before actioning my well thought "interior design" plan. I made sure Ikea had all the stuffs that I wanted in stock with a little research the night before and I made a dash for them once I got to ikea on Saturday on my own. I repeat on my own. Again I repeat on my own. Okay, you've got it. Good. Because on my ikea shopping list I had:

1] 2 seater red sofa (180cm width)
2] bookcase (190cm height)
3] another slightly smaller bookcase (149cm height)
4] TV bench (145cm width)
5] side table that I use as my coffee table (55x55cm)
6] desk (120x60cm)
7] a chair
8] a folding chair
9] rug (195x135cm)
10] mirror (120x40cm)
11] boxes for storage
12] shelf for my wardrobe (100x58cm)

Please don't ask me how much I've spent, I'm still wondering how to repay my credit card's favour. Haha. Anyway, on my own I had to race about Ikea getting them from all over the warehouse. There were so many people. It was mad! Waiting in line at the information helpdesks to get locations for some of my stuffs. Man, shan't go into details of that, I can go on and on about it.

All but one item was what I needed to complete my purchase - the missing shelf for my wardrobe. Ah ha! What I can say is that the out of stock shelf was found on someone else's trolley which had been left alone for ages. There were 2 packages of them, and a guy was by it, so I thought to ask where had he managed to get them from so I could try find it. Then he asked me back if those were mine. I said no but that was what I was looking for, and what do you know, he too. Hahahaha... we are not stealing or nicking, we are just taking what's on our shopping list and putting it onto our own trolley. This is blessing in disguise #1. Blessing in disguise #2 was the red sofa cover for my sofa. I was told they had stock for it then no stock for it and then they had stock for it again. Gee and I queued up thrice for that! Glad I had enough paitence. Even more so true when I had to wait for an hour just so I could get my stuffs delivered home from this other delivery guy offering £5 cheaper delivery service as compared to Ikea's! If I wasn't so skint I wouldn't have had all this paitence.

Here's what I'd planed for my room (the 2nd stage)! The furnitures are not resized to scale. I didn't get the dinning table set in the end, just not worth it. Got another desk and other chairs instead. Thinking of returning the smaller bookcase as there's not much space in my room for it (I miscalculated). Will get the cushions the next time. As for the TV, I'm still saving up for it! Tsk tsk... but I'm loving my red sofa! (I'm sitting on it now as I'm blogging). Woo hoo! It's great to have your own room!